I PRE-APOLOGIZE FOR ALL INCORRECT TERMINOLOGY. I have no clue what I'm doing!

I am completely new to Dreamweaver, web updating, all of it. We have an existing website that is maintained by one of our employees, but he isn't always the fastest at getting the updates posted. I downloaded Dreamweaver and imported the site, setup server, etc. and have been making some changes to the site.

I am noticing that some things were built through a template - The address/header across the top, the contact info/footer across the bottom - or at least that's what I'm guessing since the un-editable regions have a little yellow box that pops up when I hover over it that says "Template:PWGSTemplate" . I wanted to update the header but I can't find that file in my Dreamweaver folder. I am able to open other pages in the site, and they show the header, but it doesn't allow me to click on that area to edit it. I Googled and someone said to go to Modify>Templates>Detach from Template. By doing this I was able to make changes to that area of the site, but those changes are only on that particular page, not on the entire site.

I have searched through all of the folders that downloaded when I imported the site in to Dreamweaver and I can't find any that are labeled Template. I don't know if I need to contact the previous web guy and ask him if he has the Templates or if am just didn't download the correct information when I imported the website.

So if I understand, you don't have access to the original local files, only those on the web server? Then, I agree, go back to the guy and get the template files and if yo can, get all the files. Template files go in a folder called "templates" in the root folder, that's where Dreamweaver looks for them and wher it puts them . You can always reattach any pages to the template file. And, in the event you can't get the template files, you can always take one of your detached pages and save it as a template, just name it the same as the original. Just be careful, backup all your files first in case something goes wrong. Typically the homepage doesn't have a template, while the content pages may have one or more different templates driving them.

I will have to ask him for the Template files then. Just wondering - since I am able to "unattach" the template, is there a way that I can save the template from the downloaded files that I have? I'm sure someone would have said if I could, but it's worth asking.

Murray, good idea - but does that assume that the original template was named template.dwt? I got the impression from the original post it was named something else, and to recreate the template it would be better to keep the same file name as this is what all the child pages will be looking for.

I think I know the exact filename and location. Not sure this is the best way to figure it out, but if I go to IE and go in to the menu > view coding then look through there I can find "../Templates/PWGSTemplate". I am not on a computer right now so I don't recall if that's the exact wording. If I were to save the file as template and put it in the templates directory/folder it should work?

Not without doing the procedure I described. Save the file once you have finished my suggested steps in the Templates folder with the name "PWGSTemplate.dwt". And yes, you would have to replace my use of '<!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/template.dwt' with your actual filename as in '<!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/PWGSTemplate.dwt"'.

My company upgraded from DW MX4 to DW8. After the update I discovered the site's default template (default.dwt) was missing from the Templates folder under the Assets section of the site. Have been able to update the child pages, however, changes need to be made to the default template page. Now I need to recreate and reattach the default.dwt page to the 150+child pages throughout the site. This site is for a public agency with high visibility and so I do not want to 'mess' it up as there is no agency tech support for DW apps. The site creator retired and showed me how to do a couple of things and because of that I assumed the website duties. Searched everywhere to find an answer and yours looks to be what I need to do. I have some questions though. What does it mean to back up the site? Copy all the site files from both the local and remote servers to a CD? What does it mean to make a duplicate of the child page? Do you mean to do a 'save as' childpage1.asp or 'copychildpage.asp?' Why does the selected file need to be CLOSED? What does that mean? I understand the find and replace procedure. What about CSS coding? The default.dwt had CSS coding for color and font size which I assume is in the template coding of the childpage.asp. Once the childpage.asp is saved as the default.dwt does all the CSS coding reattach or reappear in the template? Sorry for the questions....as I want to make sure I clearly understand your instructions. Thank you in advance for your time.

My company upgraded from DW MX4 to DW8. After the update I discovered the site's default template (default.dwt) was missing from the Templates folder under the Assets section of the site. Have been able to update the child pages, however, changes need to be made to the default template page. Now I need to recreate and reattach the default.dwt page to the 150+child pages throughout the site. This site is for a public agency with high visibility and so I do not want to 'mess' it up as there is no agency tech support for DW apps. The site creator retired and showed me how to do a couple of things and because of that I assumed the website duties. Searched everywhere to find an answer and yours looks to be what I need to do. I have some questions though. What does it mean to back up the site? Copy all the site files from both the local and remote servers to a CD? What does it mean to make a duplicate of the child page? Do you mean to do a 'save as' childpage1.asp or 'copychildpage.asp?' Why does the selected file need to be CLOSED? What does that mean? I understand the find and replace procedure. What about CSS coding? The default.dwt had CSS coding for color and font size which I assume is in the template coding of the childpage.asp. Once the childpage.asp is saved as the default.dwt does all the CSS coding reattach or reappear in the template? Sorry for the questions....as I want to make sure I clearly understand your instructions. Thank you in advance for your time.

You need to start a new thread of your own. You have hijacked somebody's thread and this is considered to be rude. Also, the people who replied to the original post may not be around to answer you. The original post is about one year old.